Science Teacher Nate Cardin, History Teacher Paul Chenier, Interdisciplinary Studies Department Head and History Teacher Larry Klein and Performing Arts Teacher Starr Wayne were awarded with endowments by Head of Upper School Beth Slattery at the opening faculty and staff meeting Aug. 20. Head of School Laura Ross chose the endowment recipients with consultation from Slattery as well as the Head of Middle School Jon Wimbish.
Slattery said the endowments are beneficial because they allow for the school’s budget to be utilized in other ways.
“[The endowments] are called faculty laureates or faculty chairs,” Slattery said. “The salary for that position comes out of the endowment, as opposed to out of [the school]. It allows us to use the school budget for other things like financial aid because a family has donated money that helped pay a teacher’s salary.”
Head of Advancement Eli Goldsmith said the purpose of the endowments is to recognize certain faculty members for their contributions to the school community.
“Endowed funds are established by donors to honor great teaching and enhance overall faculty compensation at Harvard-Westlake,” Goldsmith said. “Awards like these recognize and reward great teaching, as well as grow our ability to increase teachers compensation across our campuses. We are tremendously grateful to the donors whose philanthropic support makes this possible.”
Cardin was awarded the Burdorf Family Endowed Faculty Laureate in Science, a gift from the Burdorf Family that will be lasting five years.
Cardin said he felt grateful to be acknowledged among his colleagues because of his admiration of them.
“Receiving this honor was a tremendous and wonderful surprise,” Cardin said. “So many of my fellow teachers are remarkable in the work that they do, which makes it such an honor to be recognized amongst them. Wonderfully, the endowment comes with a stipend that I can use however I’d like.”
Chenier received a stipend fund from the Song Family Endowed Faculty Laureate, an award established in 2019 Heidi Zhu and Alan Song.
Chenier said he hopes to use some of his stipend fund to explore parts of the ancient world he has interest in.
“I’m still freshly surprised by this extraordinary honor,” Chenier said. “I haven’t thought about the stipend yet. I teach history and adore the ancient world, so I think it would be lovely to travel a little bit to places of historical interest.”
Klein was awarded the Bernheim Family Endowed Kutler Center Faculty Laureate, a donation from Doug Bernheim ’75, and Wayne received the The Ted Walch Endowed Faculty Chair in Performing Arts and Cinema Studies.
